Pages
The Voice
i t t-t-r
April 30,1982
Lydia Day, Miss FSU
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NEW SGA
INSTALLED
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Tommy Bumpers, SGA Vice President
Jerry Beatty, SGA President
Herb McMHlian, SGA Business
Manager
The importance of student govern
ment as a part of the University is to be
measured by the same basic criterion as
any other university activity, that is, its
meaning for education. Student
Government as the sum total of out-of-
class activities influences the at
mosphere and setting of student life. It
reflects the quality of faculty instruc
tion. It is the action side of college
education, and as such, the vital side.
As the vital side compliments the
academic side. Student Government is
not to be viewed as child’s play or as a
side show. It is essence to the teaching
mission of the university.
Closely associated with the concept
of academic freedom is student
freedom. At this University students
should enjoy maximum opportunity to
express themselves and to manage their
affairs in the living, active, and
realistic laboratory of campus life.
This should be simply a recognition
that each student is an individual who
is seeking to develop his own character,
integrity and capabilities and who is
striving to find ways of using his
powers in the service of humanity.
There has developed, in this Univer
sity, a suitable environment in which
the weak can grow strong and the
strong can grow great. One is free to
fail as well as to succeed. A few studen
ts interpret the absence of strict
regulation to be an invitation to a life
of frivolity, but the majority of us
respond wisely to the opportunity to
President’s Inaugural
Address
1
_ _ _
Leola Weeks,
Miss Student Center
develop self-discipline. Student
freedom, like all freedom, is subject to
attack when there is an abuse. But too
often its critics measure the effective
ness of student leadership under stu
dent freedom against a hypothetically
perfect alternative. But measured over
the years by realistic standards, the
verdict should be clear that the quality
of leadership by students at this
University is high. Student freedom,
like academic freedom, is an essential
attribute of a great university. In these
attributes we must continue to excel.
Philosophies of Student Govern
ment vary with each new ad
ministration. My view of Student
Government would not coincide with
those of my predecessors. Yet, admit
ting different personalities and dif
ferent perspectives, there are discer-
nable trends that etch themselves in the
woodwork of time. I do not see my
philosophy to be at wide discrepancy
with the spirit of the past. In addition,
my essential philosophy of student
government is one of people - people
working with one another, trying to
better the cause of their fellowman
through constructive service and
meaningful action: to me that is what
student government should be all
about. Clearly the most meaningful
aspect of my job will be working with
the wonderfully committed and in
volved members of the entire university
family.
In this day and age students question
the meaningfulness of any form of in
volvement. Consequently, I will at
tempt to present avenues of action that
are both personally valuable and
socially beneficial. In the ideal, student
government represents the involvement
of the student community in areas that
will assure personal growth, positive
action, service to fellow students, and
benefit to the larger community of
man.
Because we have been allowed as a
result of the blood, sweat, and tears of
our ancestors to develop our minds, it
is our duty to see that intellect to ad
vance our people and not our own
selfish interests. The Black man now
stands at the crossroad of human
destiny. He is at the place where he
must either step forward or backward.
As college students, we are the hope
for the future. We must possess the in
tellect, the energy and the courage to
stand up and advocate for Black
America.
The wealth of promise found within
the walls of Black College and Univer
sities is not a secret confined to the
community. Someone must have told
our government that Martin Luther
King, Stokely Carmichael and
Thurgood Marshall are graduates of
predominantly Black institutions. The
word also leaked that there is a whole
new breed of politically conscious
Black students about to be cast upon
the world who have all intentions to
make positive changes for all
humanity.
The realization of this possibility has
prompted an attack on Black Colleges
and Universities, by way of
desegregation plans, mergers, lack of
funding, decline in basic grants to
Black students and pressure applied on
the administrations of Black schools to
sell us out.
As students of a predominantly
Black university we cannot allow this
camouflaged attack of our schools to
continue unchallenged. The need to
outwardly express our sentiments and
take action within this organization is
there. We shall remember the last will
and testament of Frederick Douglass
which said: “Power concedes nothing
without a demand. It never has and it
never shall.”
The belief that we as Black people
cannot extract justice and equality for
our people must be discarded.
For we are as powerful as our collec
tive activities are to exert that power.
As we embark upon endeavors to ad
vocate for Black America, we’ll always
be mindful that there will be some
within our own race who will seek to
discourage and dissuade us from our
task. I leave you with these words of
Marcus Garvey that were spoken more
than a half century ago: “The illiterate
and shallow-minded Negro who can
see no farther than his nose is now the
greatest stumbling block in the way of
the race.”